“The team has a boss. Me. Whether they like me or not doesn’t matter.”
“It always matters. Respect makes a person work harder. Just because you’re their boss and they might fear losing their jobs doesn’t mean they are going to do the job well. Haven’t you ever heard that?”
He stared at me for a second too long, and his eyes changed. “I used to think the same about my father, about my family. We didn’t need fear; we needed respect. My brother and I made friends rather than enemies.”
“See?” I pointed out and shrugged as I walked past him through the doorway. At least maybe now we’d get somewhere, even if I had to look at how hot my boss was throughout the whole day.
I stomped out to the paddleboard relay and tried to hide my frown and irritation when basically every girl swarmed Cade. Lucas was by my side in a hot second, too, telling me exactly what he would do if he got Cade alone. It definitely wasn’t subtle, or professional, but I didn’t blame him. That body and those tattoos had everyone drooling.
Then, I was even more frustrated when Cade did exactly what he was supposed to do. He freaking interacted and swam and engaged with everyone on the team. He joked with them. He laughed. An outsider would assume he belonged there, like he was a part of us, like he wasn’t the callous boss everyone made him out to be.
The fucker won the paddleboard relay for his team too. All of a sudden, the billionaire tech mogul was an avid paddleboarder? I swear I almost shoved him off the damn thing.
And after, everyone was more than willing to accept job tasks for JUNIPER. They even complimented us on a great team retreat, as if I had something to do with it.
Cade nearly knocked me off my feet when he told everyone that none of it would have been possible had I not built the system.
I went to bed that night hoping he would roll over onto my side of the spray-painted line and tell me it was all overrated, that we should screw until the sun came up.
He didn’t.
Suddenly, he was the perfect boss, and I was the one who wanted to step over the line.
16
Cade
A week in, I was still showing Izzy what a good boss looked like. Her words had stuck with me, made me realize I’d neglected a large part of my job. I’d treated the teams I’d worked with like employees rather than family.
My team was a part of my family, in a way. They protected the world I wanted to keep living in. One where I was in charge, where the president trusted me, where my brother and my family were safe. JUNIPER and this team helped with that. Sure, I could do it alone, but with people I trusted, it was much easier.
And over the past few days, Izzy had taught seamless sessions at the luxury private conference center down the road. I particularly enjoyed how it looked like a large log cabin on the outside but the inside was equipped with every high-end piece of technology we needed.
Izzy stood at the podium, answering questions about how each voting system could be handled in different states and explaining what to do in the event of a security breach. She didn’t falter when they questioned whether our setup was good enough to hold against other countries.
She spoke with confidence, with passion, and with a respect for all of them. She believed in her team, and I think that’s why they believed in her.
The lesson she was teaching me shined through in the way she portrayed herself. I found a higher respect for her and everyone there.
Well, everyone except Rodney.
Rodney would eye her up and try to help her onto her paddleboard or tell her a joke that she would laugh at. There were moments I thought I was going to drag her back to the cabin to have my way with her.
I didn’t but, damn, I’d considered it.
I couldn’t continue down the road of purity much longer even if I tried, and for some reason, she was holding out too. When I’d put on my swim trunks, I’d thought she was going to claw her way up my body, but she hadn’t.
We remained professional, except for the visit I’d scheduled earlier that morning when she’d been away from the cabin. I’d tasked Heather with buying another bracelet, this one worth millions, with diamonds lining the inside of the wrist because I knew Izzy wasn’t flashy. There were other stipulations to the jewelry, but it was quite an easy find when we had contacts around the nation for diamonds and jewelers. The Armanelli family’s wealth extended everything. When Heather brought it over, I saw the disdain on her face, but I sent her away immediately after explaining she could keep the bracelet, but it was not significant to me other than it being a thank you gift.
When Izzy got back to the cabin each night, she worked hard and didn’t take any time to rest. I saw how, without me antagonizing her, Izzy worked herself to the bone. Other than the candy canes she ate, the woman would constantly forget to eat. If I didn’t put food in front of her, she’d skip meal after meal.
So, on day seven, we meandered back to the cabin, and I cooked up some pasta as she sat typing away on her laptop. When I placed the plate down in front of her, she practically cried tears of joy when she tasted it. “Who taught you to cook like this? Is it homemade alfredo or something?”
I laughed at the joy in her face. “My mother, bless her soul, would have been livid if she saw how you didn’t eat throughout the day. Thankfully, she taught me and my brother to cook a little.”
“I literally can’t talk to you right now. Please let me enjoy this in silence.”
The silence was agonizing though because she moaned the whole damn time and made my dick twitch.
“You staying up to work?” I asked her after she shoved the last bite in her mouth.
She held up a finger as she finished chewing. “That was quite possibly the perfect meal. So, I guess I have to say thank you first.”
As she licked her lips, I tried but failed not to watch. “Want to thank me another way?”
“Cade …” She sighed, rubbing her eyes. “I have more work to get done.”
“Like?”
“Rodney needed me to send him a training, and Juda wanted me to send a few emails. I have a few more things to get accomplished.”
“You can give it a rest. You don’t have to do a million jobs at once. They all think you’re doing great out there, Izzy.” Didn’t she see that she worked herself to the bone? That everyone else’s requests of her didn’t need to come before sleep?
“They do. Sure. What about you, though?” She glanced over at me for a second before going back to her laptop.
“Does it matter what I think?” I wanted her to admit it did, that I meant something more to her than everyone else.
The woman glanced up, but then avoided my gaze and shrugged. It was the avoidance I pinpointed, the way she stopped for a nanosecond too long. I wanted her full attention now. I wanted the story she held back.
Even though she kept typing away, as if we weren’t having a conversation, as if I didn’t need her full attention, I shouldn’t have cared. I did the same to everyone else all the time. With her, though, that shit was infuriating.
She didn’t think I was worth her time? Was the damn job always more important, even after she’d worked a full twelve-hour day?
“Izzy, I’m talking to you,” I murmured, giving her an opportunity to adjust her approach.